


If You Please

by Lapin



Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: M/M, Pet fic, faraday has no impulse control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:27:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23852281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lapin/pseuds/Lapin
Summary: There’s a dog in the house.Well, specifically, there’sanotherdog in the house. A huge, black-and-white, fluffy monster of a dog, sleeping beside Jack, the dog who issupposedto be in the house.Vasquez doesn’t know this dog.
Relationships: Joshua Faraday/Vasquez
Comments: 12
Kudos: 98
Collections: Epic To Read List





	If You Please

**Author's Note:**

> Because why not.
> 
> This universe, in order:
> 
> [Near Misses](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20296969) by Hazel_Athena  
> [Smilin' At Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20298748) by me
> 
> And now this.

There’s a dog in the house.

Well, specifically, there’s _another_ dog in the house. A huge, black-and-white, fluffy monster of a dog, sleeping beside Jack, the dog who is _supposed_ to be in the house. 

Vasquez doesn’t know this dog. This dog was definitely not here before he left for his shift yesterday afternoon. But it’s here now, at seven in the morning. It’s here, and, like Jack, having a much-belated response to Vas’ presence by rolling to its feet and joining Jack in his morning begging for pets and possibly treats. Since it’s come close of its own volition, Vas uses the opportunity to get a look at it. 

Bernese Mountain Dog, if he had to guess, or rather mostly. The face isn’t standard, and more reminiscent of a pit bull. It’s had a bath recently, its masses of fluffy fur still damp in places, but when he feels around the neck, his heart drops. “What’s this then?” he asks gently, pushing some hair to the side so he can see the dog’s neck. 

There’s scarring. A lot of it. And underneath the fur, he can feel how skinny the dog is. Not all of it is fluff either. He can feel some matting that’s been loosened by the bath, but will probably need to be clipped. Someone’s trimmed the dog’s claws recently too, but the pads of its paws don’t look good. 

The dog is a boy, he sees. 

“Someone hasn’t been treating you too well, have they, _mijo_?” And Vas can guess just which someone had taken offense to that. “Please tell me he didn’t steal you out of someone’s yard.” 

The dog doesn’t answer, just keeps panting in his face. Beside him, Jack is doing the same, creeping closer and closer. 

Vas gives in, scratching his neck, before standing up and going to look for his boyfriend. 

He finds Josh in bed, stripped down to his boxers, sound asleep on top of the covers. In the laundry basket, he finds Josh’s clothes from last night, and yep, tee shirt smells distinctly of alcohol and dog. “Joshua,” he calls, and climbs onto the bed, shaking Josh by the shoulder. “Wake up.”

“Hm? Hey, babe, something wrong?” He doesn’t even move, mostly talking into the pillow. At this hour, it’s entirely possible he’s still drunk, considering he was out with Goody, Billy, and Red. Red doesn’t drink, but the other three more than make up for him. 

“Joshua, why is there a dog in our house?” 

“Vas, babe, if it’s taken you this long to notice Jack…” He rubs his face and rolls to a sitting position, Vas moving with him. Since the dogs have followed Vas into the bedroom, he doesn’t even have to point. Just like that, Josh’s face changes from half-asleep to a grin he probably thinks is very charming. “Oh. That dog.”

“Yes, Josh, _that_ dog. Where did that dog come from?”

“I found him.” That could mean any number of things, with Josh. 

“Was he with another human when you did this ‘finding’?” 

“Nope,” Josh says. “Hold on, give me a minute. Think I’m still a little drunk. Not like, a lot. Fuck, I’m getting too old.” He gets up out of the bed, and heads off, Vas following. In the kitchen, Josh pours himself a glass of water and downs the whole thing quickly, before splashing some on his face. “Okay, no. Not drunk. Just old and tired. Knew I didn’t drink that much. I was definitely sober when I fell asleep.” 

“The dog, Josh.” 

Since they’re dogs, they’ve again followed, and now they’re both just looking at them. 

“Right,” Josh says, then snaps his fingers and points at the newcomer. “So we were out at that bar on Mayberry -” He means a particular dive that Vas isn’t even entirely sure has a liquor license, “ - And Billy wants to smoke, right? So we go outside to do just that, and this boy just comes out of nowhere, this nasty chain on his neck, dragging a stake behind him. Best I can figure, he must have managed to get himself out of a bad situation. Comes right up to me, and what was I supposed to do? Ditch him?”

This is the part where most people would have called animal control. But Josh isn’t most people. 

“So I get Red to bring his truck around, because you know Red, he’s an animal lover.” That’s a generous assessment, but Red does like animals more than he likes people. “And we load this boy up, get him home, get him cleaned up. And here he is. Figured you could look him over once you got home.” 

Vas is about to say something, anything, but then Josh makes a very soppy face down at the dogs, and Vas checks again. Constantine, who has emerged from wherever she was hiding, is rubbing herself up against the new dog’s legs. 

“Look, Constantine likes him,” Josh says. 

The new dog doesn’t seem to mind her, ducking his big shaggy head to sniff her, and let her nuzzle and purr against him. 

“Oh, you like _him_ ,” Vas mutters. That cat is out to get him, he swears. 

There’s a lot to process here. First off though, this dog needs to go to the clinic. God knows how little care he’s gotten, judging from the scarring and his paws. They’ll have to scan for a chip, too, make sure he actually belongs to whoever was neglecting him. There’s a possibility he has a real owner who’d like him back. 

But he knows Josh. “Have you named him?”

“Yeah, decided to call him Danny.”

It takes Vas a minute. He blames that on a long, tedious shift. Danny. Like Daniel. Like _Jack Daniel’s_. “Josh, by chance were you drinking whiskey last night?” 

“Yep.”

Yeah, this is pretty much going exactly how Vas could have predicted it. “Get dressed, Josh. Emma’s on shift, I’ll text her.” 

While Josh gets showered and dressed, Vas does just that. Rather quickly, he gets back a reply full of laughing emojis. Because Emma is not above mocking him. She does text back that she’ll move back some appointments and get ready for them. 

Very quickly, he also gets a text from Teddy. Apparently when she said she would move some appointments around, she meant she’d order Teddy to do it. Oh, Vas really owes him a gift basket by now. Possibly a raise, but since he’s technically a co-owner, Vas isn’t sure that’s in his power. It’s never come up before. Actually, now that he thinks about it, he thinks Teddy handles payroll. Maybe _he_ should ask for a raise. 

That’s not for right now though. He finds a harness of Jack’s in the hall closet, one of the ones with padding, and sets the neck as loose as he can risk before getting the new dog, _Danny_ , into it. He goes along with it easily enough, which kind of worries Vas. He’s practically got his tail between his legs. 

Someone’s hurt this dog. No wonder Josh couldn’t just leave him. 

“It’s alright, Danny,” Vas soothes, giving in and using the name. “We’re just going to go to the doctor, okay? Make sure you’re alright.” He has to shove Jack away, Jack feeling left out now that it looks like Danny is going somewhere. “Not now, Jack.” It’s time for his morning walk, so he probably is pretty confused. “We’ll go out after we get back.” 

Jack doesn’t like that, but there’s nothing to be done about it. 

Danny is actually pretty well-behaved in the car. He lies down in the backseat with no prompting, and stays there the whole ride. 

“I gave him chicken and rice,” Josh says. “Don’t know what allergies he might have, so I didn’t want to risk any kibble. And I didn’t give him much. Get the feeling he hasn’t had reliable meals.” That was smart. If Josh had given him too much, it’s likely Danny would have just thrown it back up. He’s not at the starvation level, but he’s too thin for his frame. That’s not good, not for a dog his size. That’ll be one of the first things they’ll have to focus on, is getting him up to a healthy weight. The other thing is his paws. “Trimmed his claws. They were bad, Vas, he bled some with the first one, so I just blunted the others.” 

Vas had noticed that when he was looking over his paws. “Probably haven’t been trimmed in awhile. The quick is long.” They can probably grind them down, as opposed to trimming. “He’s going to need a short haircut. That matting is bad for him.” 

“I know. I tried the dog conditioner, got it to loosen up some, but I didn’t want to hurt him.” 

It wouldn’t have been a good idea anyway. That’s a job best left to a professional at that point.

Just like with the car, Danny goes along with being led into the clinic with no trouble. He mostly just seems scared, poor thing. Teddy waves them on back, telling them Emma is set up in the second exam room. When he sees Danny, his eyebrows go up, but other than that, he doesn’t say anything. 

Emma’s waiting, gloves already on. “Jesus Christ, Faraday, you couldn’t find a small dog, could you?” She doesn’t wait for an answer. “Alright, Alejo, can you assist?” He’s tired, but his shift was pretty boring, so he’s good. He boosts Danny up onto the exam table for her, tells Josh to go sit in the waiting room, and they get to work. 

Surprisingly, Danny’s in okay shape. There’s no fleas, but it is the middle of winter. No sign of heartworms either, or any other underlying conditions. “He’s gotta be less than two,” Emma estimates at some point, which explains why he’s mostly alright. He’s young enough he can still bounce back. 

His paws are another story, and his weight is really low. Not to mention his fur. 

He’s not chipped, though. 

“So, let me guess,” Emma says. “Josh is already in love?”

“He named him,” Vas says. “Danny.”

It takes her less time than it took him, Emma rolling her eyes. “You better watch it or you’re going to end up with a whole liquor cabinet’s worth of pets. You’re going to be one of those vets.” 

“Says the woman with five cats.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! I had one cat! She multiplied.” 

“You didn’t have to keep all of the kittens.” And yet she did. 

“Matthew got attached. I couldn’t tell him _no_ , not by then,” she grumbles, but doesn’t argue anymore. 

So now Danny’s taken care of. Now what? Vas isn’t really looking to have another dog in the house. They just moved in together a month ago, and Jack and Constantine are already a full house of animals as far as he’s concerned. Danny is a big dog. _Another_ big dog. He’s subdued right now, but he might have all sorts of behavioral issues lurking under the surface. 

This is just a bad idea. 

But Vas knows a shelter won’t go well for him. He’s too big for most people to risk. And who better to deal with underlying behavioral and health issues but a veterinarian? Not to mention, how could he do it? Danny’s already pushing his big head against Vas, obviously expecting him to take care of him. Could Vas really take him to a shelter and just leave him there?

Yeah, he already knows the answer to that. He is a weak, weak man. 

They’ll have to keep him until they can find him a family. 

Out in the waiting room, Josh is leaning over Teddy’s desk, apparently doing his level best to annoy him. Teddy is mostly ignoring him, from what Vas can see, but Teddy’s like that. 

“Where’s Danny?” Josh asks, when he sees Vas. 

“They’re giving him a haircut,” Vas explains. Now that they’ve actually got a working number of techs, they also have some volunteers for mundane tasks like that. Danny had seemed alright with it, had even taken the muzzle willingly. Just because he’s been well-behaved so far, there’s no reason to take unnecessary risks, and even the best dogs get spooked from the clippers. “They’ll have to go pretty short where the matting is.” But Danny will probably feel better after. His hair is too long right now, and it can’t be comfortable. Plus, matting is painful for dogs. 

“Eh, he’ll still be pretty,” Josh says. Josh also believes Jack is a handsome dog, though. “So? What’s the status?”

“He’s okay, overall,” Vas says. “We’ll need to watch his diet, and his exercise. He’s underweight, but the weight gain needs to go slow. And his paws need to heal before he does too much in the way of walking.” It’s too cold out, so he’ll probably need boots until they heal up. They’ll have to go to the pet store either way. He’ll need his own bowl, and a collar. Tags. A brush. 

Josh is grinning at him. “So we’re keeping him?”

“Just for a little while,” Vas conditions. “He needs to get healthy before any decisions are made.”

He still gets kissed, Josh smiling. “I knew you were meant for me, babe,” he says cheerfully, cupping Vas’ face. “He’ll fit in just fine. Just like you.” Vas isn’t sure he should be happy to be compared to a dog, but well, he does love Josh, and Josh means it as the highest praise, knowing him, so he’ll take it. 

“Just don’t go rescuing any more animals for awhile, alright?” Between Jack and Constantine, and now this one, they won’t have any more room in the house. 

They go to the pet store while Danny’s getting fixed up, getting the usual supplies, and when they come back, Danny’s ready. With his haircut, incredibly short now, they can see what he actually looks like. There’s definitely some pit bull in him somewhere, but Vas thinks his initial thought of him being mostly Bernese Mountain Dog is accurate. Or possibly, he’s just an all around mutt, and those are just the traits that were dominant in him in particular. The rest of his litter might look completely different.

Josh gets the tags on the new collar, and clips it around Danny’s neck. They’d gotten a soft one, just in case, but after the exam and with the haircut, Vas at least knows there’s no currently open wounds. There’s some that were recently, but they’re closed now. Whoever had owned him had been lucky he hadn’t needed stitches. They could have ended up with a dead dog in their yard, and neighbors finally being disturbed enough to call animal control. 

It amazes Vas, and not in a good way, what it takes for people to finally step in when it comes to animal abuse. Someone had to have noticed this dog was chained up outside in this cold. Had been chained up for a while. 

But it’s possible someone did call. That isn’t a great neighborhood. And there’s no telling how far Danny had walked before Josh saw him. 

Either way, whatever the story is, Danny is coming home with them, at least for a little while. He’ll be safe there. And after they get him healthy again, they can look at finding him a permanent home. 

Back at the house, Danny finally perks up again, happily meeting Jack in the entryway and allowing Jack to sniff him. Since there doesn’t seem to be any issue there, and Josh is big enough to handle it if it takes a turn, Vas decides to finally go to fucking sleep. 

He hates night shift. But it’s his turn in the rotation, so there’s no helping it. It works out okay for him and Josh, at least. Josh doesn’t actually work many hours in the physical office building he’s employed by, most of his work easily done from home on his own schedule. He’s got a fancy title, and Vas knows he does something with numbers, but for the life of him, he doesn’t actually understand what Josh’s job _is_. He makes more than Vas, he knows that, not that anyone would know it from the way Josh was living when Vas met him. 

His couch had been from Goodwill, for Christ’s sake. 

That couch had not been allowed into this new house. It was unspeakably ugly, and Vas can put up with a lot, but not seeing that couch in their living room every day. 

The bed is the only thing that’s actually brand new. They’re both tall men, and since the master bedroom in this house was decent-sized, they’d indulged and gotten a big one. They probably wouldn’t need such a large one Josh wasn’t always letting Jack in the bed with them, but well, Vas isn’t exactly laying down the law in that respect either. It’s hard to say no to Jack. 

Constantine, on the other hand. Vas can say no to her. 

Like now. “Not a chance,” he grumbles, when he feels breath and whiskers on the back of his neck. He thought he’d checked for her before he closed the door, but she must have been hiding. Since she weighs about seven pounds, tiny, even as a now-adult cat, it’s easy to miss her. And easy for her to sneak up on him. 

She bats at his neck with her paw, her breathing loud against his ear. 

“This is my bed,” he says. “Not yours. And I’m tired.” Frustrated, he rolls over to look at her, Constantine jumping back and giving him a slightly-offended look. “What? You let yourself in here, so you’re stuck. I’m not getting up again.” She just keeps looking at him, her tail swishing. 

With most cats, that usually meant irritation, but it’s not always the case with Constantine. Josh had found her when she was very young, only eight weeks or so, and it’s possible whoever had her before that had separated her from her mother too soon. Considering they’d tossed her into a dumpster in the middle of a storm, leaving her to be mercifully rescued by Josh, Vas wouldn’t have put it past them. 

All of that meant that Constantine’s only real model of another four-legged animal was Jack. As such, she had some behaviors that were distinctly more canine than feline. Including tail-wagging, as much as a cat could wag their tail. She moved her tail a lot, whether she was angry or just excited. So Vas isn’t sure just what she’s feeling right now. 

She attempts to pounce on his hand when he moves it under the covers, so he guesses she’s in as good a mood as she gets with Vas. He’s been with Josh for over a year now, was practically living at the apartment with him before they moved in here, and yet Constantine still doesn’t seem to like him all that much. 

Some cats are just like that, he knows, but still. Vas is kind of hurt by it. Jack loves him, had loved him almost right away. Possibly because Vas had bribed him with treats and walks and playtime, but he still liked Vas. Constantine had never fallen for any bribes though. 

“What do you think about this?” he asks her. “Your papa is crazy, you know that? Who just brings a random dog home?”

Josh. Josh brings random dogs home. He’d known right from the start that Josh had obtained Jack through less than legal avenues, but after they’d been dating for a few months, Josh had finally told him the whole story. Jack had originally belonged to a man who’d apparently been using him as a bait dog for dog-fighting, which had explained why Jack was so scarred up, and what had happened to his other eye, and his tail. While Jack was perfectly willing to defend himself, there wasn’t a lot of real hatred in him. He probably had originally been acquired to be a fighter, but hadn’t had the heart. 

He’d had a miserable life before Josh had seen him, and taken him. It had made sense why he hadn’t told Vas right off the bat. The man hadn’t exactly surrendered Jack willingly, from how Josh told it. 

But he’d taken Jack, and gotten him fixed up. Taken care of him and loved him. And Jack clearly adored Josh, but of course he did. Josh was his hero. And Constantine had been the same way, from that first night. Animals could be smart like that. 

Now, there’s Danny. Another abandoned and mistreated dog, so of course Josh brought him right home. There’s so many ways it could have gone wrong last night. What if Danny had turned aggressive after Josh fell asleep, attacked Jack, or god forbid, little Constantine? Even on a more mundane level, what if there had been a bad case of fleas hiding in all that fur? They’d have had to bomb the house. 

That’s also a strange quirk of Josh’s though; he’s _lucky_. Even when he really shouldn’t be, he is. 

“Your papa…” Vas says aloud, to Constantine. “What am I going to do with him?”

Probably marry him, but that’s because Vas is somehow hopelessly in love with the crazy man, even a year later and after months of cohabitation. He really shouldn’t be, but he just is. Josh is impulsive and slightly insane in some ways, not always the good kind, and Vas just loves him. 

Constantine has apparently gotten bored with his musings, because she’s laid down on the bed, her eyes closed. _Cats._ How does Emma live with so many of them? 

“You are not helpful,” he tells her. 

He’s tired, anyway. He’s been awake too damn long, so he gets himself comfortable, tucking an arm under his pillow, and falls asleep too. 

And, as the weeks go by, he thinks again on Josh’s strange luck. Danny gets better, slowly but surely, and by the time a month goes by, he looks like any other happy, healthy dog. His fur grows back from his necessary haircut, and he gains the weight needed. His paws heal up, and before long, he’s happily going on walks with Jack, and wrestling in the yard with him. The pair of them flop together wherever they end up in the house, which, unfortunately for Vas, seems to always be the walkway. It was bad enough having to step around Jack, now he has another giant body to navigate. 

Danny just fits into the house, much as Vas doesn’t really want to admit it. He’s not even that much trouble, except for the shedding. Since Jack and Constantine are both short hairs, that hadn’t really been a problem before. Josh and him just use it as a reason to finally buy a good vacuum cleaner. Which they had been needing to do anyway. They’re both over six feet, so they’d picked out a house with high ceilings, which unfortunately means cobwebs tend to gather up in the corners. A nice vacuum complete with the good attachments means no more cobwebs. They were going to have to buy one eventually, so even if this temporary arrangement forced their hand, it’s still a good thing.

There’s an unintended side effect too. Constantine suddenly takes more of a liking to Vas. 

It’s small things at first; choosing to share the couch with him, and the bed when he’s sleeping during the day, but it slowly becomes her actually getting into his lap when he’s watching TV, or coming to him when she wants affection. She even sits by him when he’s on his laptop, looking for people who can take a big dog. She usually hates when one of them is using a computer.

Months of living together, with nothing from her, and now this. 

It makes Vas happy. He’s a vet for a reason, and hostile as Constantine has been, he’s never hated her. She’s a tiny little cat, how could he? If anything, it’s hurt his feelings more than he ever wanted to say that she so openly disliked him. He’s never had an animal outright hate him. 

Emma thinks it’s _hilarious_. 

“Oh my God, she’s jealous of the new baby!” She crows, when Vas tells her, one night when they’re sitting around her kitchen table, drinking wine and playing Scrabble. 

Across the table, Teddy hums what might be agreement, concentrating on his tiles. Then the asshole turns Vas’ ‘gin’ into ‘ginseng’, and looks up to ask, “What were you saying?” 

“Constantine is acting like a middle sibling with a new baby brother,” Emma explains. “She’s even letting Alejo pet her.” 

“That happens,” Teddy says reasonably. “She’s got to share Josh with another animal now, so she’s decided you’ll do.” 

“You know, maybe she’s just finally warmed up to me,” Vas argues, on principle. It’s probably a combination of the two. “She’ll still like me, after we find Danny a home.” That gets him some silence. He looks between them. “What?”

“You still believe you’re getting rid of that dog?” Emma asks. 

It’s not like it’s a surprise. Vas has even been meaning to put up a flyer for Danny in the clinic. He just hasn’t had time for it. And he wanted to wait until Danny looked good, so he’d have a cute picture. Plus, he’d have to run a full background check on anyone looking to take him, and that’s a lot of work. He hasn’t been able to muster up the energy. 

“We can’t keep him for good.” One of the cats, Bellwether, Vas is pretty sure, jumps up on the table to see what they’re doing, and Vas scratches her head. “We have to vacuum twice a week, at least, because of him.”

That gets him a narrow-eyed look from Teddy. “You do know you’re supposed to do that, right?” 

“Says who?”

“Says basic cleanliness.” Vas doesn’t believe that. “And I don’t want to hear it anyway. You try living with a husky.” 

“No one told you to move in with Red,” Emma points out. 

Teddy looks between them both, and says, “Bullshit, both of you did exactly that!” 

That’s not entirely untrue. Well, it might be exactly what happened, but only because even Vas was getting tired of Red’s weird, subtle hints to try and get Teddy to do it on his own. The man had bought a very expensive coffee maker, and according to Josh, the one he’d had had come from his parents’ house, and had been about as old as them. 

Josh had very calmly stated that it was proof that Red was deeply in love with Teddy. 

“Yeah, well, you’re happy, aren’t you?” Emma asks, waving him off. Another cat has appeared on the back of her chair. It’s Cowboy, Vas thinks. “And yeah, Alejo, you really are supposed to vacuum a couple of times a week. Especially when you have pets. Otherwise your rugs will get discolored.” The house has old hardwood floors, already scratched to hell and back, which is why they’d picked it out, but they do have the area rugs. 

“It’s why they’re dark,” he says, but he knows when he’s beaten. He’s admittedly not the best housekeeper, but he’d grown up with five sisters, and however many pets, so his childhood home had never exactly been spotless. His parents were of the ‘live and let live’ sort. “We just can’t have another big dog. Not forever.” 

“It’s not like you have kids,” Emma says. “Or should. Seriously, don’t. You and Josh are terrible adults.” She looks over at Teddy. “You, on the other hand…”

“Shut up, Emma,” Teddy says dully. “I’m not getting a kid just so you can be an aunt.” 

“Jerk.” On the board, she spells out ‘jezebel’. “Why don’t you want to keep him?”

“Because it’s insane,” Vas says. “We have Jack and Constantine already. That’s enough. We can’t keep Danny.” 

“Have you talked about that with Josh? Because he’s been talking with Red like Danny is staying.” Of course he has. That’s just Josh. But Vas had told him from the start this was a temporary arrangement until they found Danny a permanent home, and that’s the plan he’s sticking to. 

He spells out ‘illness’, using the ‘l’ from Emma’s ‘jezebel’. “We’re not keeping him for good. I’ll put up a flyer in the clinic.” 

And when he gets home, he even makes one up on his laptop, and sends it to his work email, so he can print it out at the clinic. Or really, make Teddy do it. That’s his intention, really. Really and truly.

Except he gets to work, and there’s too much to do. And the next day, too. And the day after that. 

He’s a vet, he’s busy. 

Sometimes with people he’d rather not have to interact with at work. 

“You know you’re keeping that dog, right?” Red asks, in lieu of a greeting, while looking at his phone instead of Vas. 

From where Vas is checking Blue’s singed tail, he does his best to glare at Red. “We are not,” he says. “We’re going to find him a good home.”

“Already did,” Red replies. Still looking at his phone. Because Red is just like that. “Your home.” 

“We’re not keeping the dog,” Vas insists, trying to get Blue to behave. She’s in a foul mood, not that Vas blames her. Seeing as how her tail had been on fire. “How did this even happen?” 

“Teddy’s cousin makes candles. She sent us some.” Yeah, Vas knows that. She’d sent some for Vas and Emma too, though Emma had to keep hers in the bathroom. Lit candles plus five cats is a bad combination. They’re actually very nice. Woodsy smelling. 

“How did Blue’s tail get burned?” Not that he thinks Red would ever do anything that would cause direct harm to his precious dog. Vas is just genuinely curious, because Blue is usually not the troublemaker out of their collective group of pets. 

“She stuck her tail in the flame,” Red says, like Vas is stupid. “She’s a dog. They do shit like that.” 

That is true. And while Blue is a very smart dog, she’s still a dog. A very pissed off one, granted, but now that she’s let Vas get a look, he can see she’s also a relatively unharmed one. Her tail is a little burned, but it’s not bad. “She’s alright. The skin isn’t even broken.” Not that he can tell, at least. “It just needs to heal.” Her fur had taken the brunt of it, which probably smelled terrible and scared her half to death, but that’s cosmetic. “You didn’t really need to bring her in for this.” 

“She’s my dog.” 

Right. Red’s kind of an asshole, but he does dote on this dog. 

“Yeah, well, she’s okay. Just really mad.” That could just be because Vas is touching her. Blue’s perfectly friendly, if not stand-offish, she just hates being manhandled. “And we’re not keeping Danny. We already have Jack.” 

“You can have two dogs.” 

“Well, why don’t you take him?”

“ _You_ can have two dogs.” Red hitches his chin at Blue. “I can’t.” Yeah, that does make sense. Blue is very possessive of Red. “Just accept you’re keeping him. It’s easier.” 

“Okay, no,” Vas argues, taking off his gloves and washing his hands. “Josh just can’t decide how we’re going to live without consulting me, first. He can’t just be bringing animals home. How would you feel if Teddy did that?” 

“He wouldn’t. But Josh would. You knew that when you met him.” 

That...is admittedly a good point. But it’s not _the_ point. “We’re not keeping the dog.” 

“Whatever.” Red clips Blue’s leash back on her and leaves the room. 

Because Red is just like that. 

Vas follows him, because he kind of has to go to the same place anyway, that is, the front desk, where Teddy is sitting. Blue has her head against his thigh, looking pathetic, which Teddy seems to be buying. For his part, Red just pays, kisses Teddy when he stands up to say good-bye, and then leaves. Doesn’t even wave to Vas. 

“Why do you date him?” Vas asks, feeling a bit grouchy over the whole thing. 

“I like him,” Teddy replies. 

When he gets home, he’s greeted by both dogs, happily barking from behind the gate Josh had installed in the entryway, to keep the dogs from knocking them over right when they got in the house. More interestingly, Constantine greets him, neatly clearing the gate to do it. It’s been her new habit, whereas she used to only do it for Josh. “Hello, _bonita_ ,” he greets, scooping her up and putting her on his shoulder. It’s her favorite place to be with Josh, and now him, like a parrot. Only cuter. “Did you have a good day bossing your brothers around?”

It’s out without him even thinking about it. Damn it, he can’t be doing that. They are going to find this dog a home, and it will not be here. 

Well, it’s not like Constantine can tell on him. And Josh isn’t home to hear it, anyway. 

He gets himself cleaned up and changed, then lets both dogs out into the yard. It’s a really great-sized yard, part of why they picked this place. It’s a little more out of the way than Vas likes, but it’s not a bad commute, only an extra ten minutes, and there’s so much room for Jack, and now Danny, to run around in. 

It’s cold out, but Vas throws on a hoodie and goes out with them, leaving Constantine safely inside, and throws the ball for them. Both dogs are absolutely overjoyed, and yeah, Vas can admit, it’s flattering to have two giant dogs competing for his attention. He does genuinely love dogs, had wanted one for himself before he started seeing Josh. 

Danny is such a good dog, just like Jack. It hurts Vas to think of how they were both treated before Josh found them.

And it hurts to think about Danny going somewhere else. 

Damn it. 

He’ll have to tell Josh they’re keeping the dog, won’t he? Well, he’ll be happy at least. 

But when Josh does get home, he doesn’t look like he’s in the mood. He’s not angry, Vas doesn’t think, just seems kind of down. He doesn’t say much either. He doesn’t ignore Vas, or anything, but Vas decides to leave him be. Pushing him before he’s ready to talk about, if there’s even anything to talk about, wouldn’t help. It might just genuinely be nothing in particular.

So Vas leaves it alone. He leaves it alone for a week.

After that week though, he’s starting to get kind of nervous. Josh is not a subdued person, not in any sense of the word. He can be sneaky, and he can be disarming when he wants to be, but not subdued. Especially not like this. It’s worrying. To the point Vas is starting to get a little paranoid that Josh might be looking to break up with Vas. He doubts it, but paranoia isn’t exactly logical. 

Sunday rolls around, and Josh is still being weird. Vas, attempting to make some conversation just for the sake of it, sits down beside him, and asks, “What are you up to?”

“Making some flyers,” Josh says. 

He is indeed making some flyers. Some flyers for Danny. 

“Why?” 

“Well, he’s been here for awhile. He’s healthy now. Time to find him a permanent family.” 

Oh. Vas was not expecting that. At all. He just assumed, and so had everyone else, he guesses, that Josh was completely on board with keeping Danny. “Is it?” 

“Yeah. I guess.” 

That does not sound like he’s on board with re-homing Danny, either. Vas is confused. “Josh, I was thinking about that, and I’ve gotten used to him. Plus, Jack really likes having a friend.” And whereas Danny has gained weight, Jack has actually lost some troublesome pounds, which is good for him. Having someone to run around in the yard is really helping. Their grass is a lost cause, but whatever. Vas isn’t big on pristine lawns anyway. They’re kind of creepy. 

“It’s cool, Vas. I mean, it’s not, but that’s on me.”

Okay, now Vas is really confused. “What’s on you?”

Josh sighs. “Look, Red talked to me. About what you said. And I was definitely mad, but Red pointed out that you were actually completely right. It wasn’t cool, just bringing Danny home like that.” He scratches the back of his neck, and puts his laptop down on the coffee table. “I don’t know why I thought it was okay. Guess because when I got Jack and Constantine, it was just me.” 

“Josh, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t exactly happy about Danny.” Danny, who is now contentedly lying by the kitchen with Jack. They don’t seem to go anywhere without the other, at this point. “But that’s because it was really risky. You had no idea how he would react to Jack and Constantine. Or if he would turn on you. Abused dogs don’t always react well. They don’t know how to.” Luckily, in this case, as lucky as it could be, Danny seems to have mostly been neglected, not actively abused. “Also, he could have had fleas.” Vas just really, really hates fleas. They disgust him on a visceral level that he can’t explain. 

“Yeah, I know.”

“And yeah, we do live together now. You have to ask me about that kind of thing in the future.” Because he knows Josh. There will be another Jack, or another Danny, or another Constantine. 

Speaking of, she’s appeared again. Not to sit in their laps or anything cute like that, but to ominously glare at the laptop. She is such a weird fucking cat. 

“I’m sorry,” Josh says. “Next time, I’ll bring whoever I find to the clinic, or something.” 

That’s for the best. They really can’t fit anymore animals in this house. “That said, I kind of like that he makes Constantine like me.” He really likes it. 

“What, Constantine’s always loved you,” Josh protests. 

He really is delusional. 

But Vas loves him. And psycho she might be at times, he also loves Constantine. And Jack. And Danny. “We’re keeping the dog, Josh.” He holds up a finger. “ _This_ dog. Just this one. No more.”

“Sweet,” Josh says, and pushes on Vas so he settles into the corner of the couch, leaving room for Josh to lay on him. “You’re the best, babe.”

“Mm-hmm.” He’s a sucker, is what he is. 

He’s definitely going to end up married to this man.


End file.
